United Way held its Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet on Monday, May 17th at First United Methodist Church in Albany. Several awards were presented to companies who donated to the 2009 Campaign including Best New Campaign awarded to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Pfizer, and AB&T. The Albany Herald was awarded the United Way Caring Connection Award for their work on dedicating a news day to United Way by publishing a peach color paper with proceeds from that days ads going to the campaign. Albany Advocacy Resource Center received the Community Campaign Partner Agency Award for their great partnership and support as one of United Way’s partner agencies.  The Top Twelve Corporate Community Builders Campaign Award was presented to the following companies: Procter & Gamble, MillerCoors, Publix, UPS, Pfizer, Tara Foods, Albany Electric Company, SB&T, AT&T, Crisp Regional Hospital, The City of Albany, and Palmyra Medical Center.

Procter and Gamble was awarded the Community Ambassador Award which is designated to the overall top contributor. The 2009 Alexis de Tocqueville Society Awards were awarded to Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Hinson and Mrs. W. Harry Willson. These members contributed $10,000 or more to the campaign. Challengers Club Members were also recognized as well as the local media including WFXL-TV, Fox 31 for producing the 2009 ‘Live United’ Campaign Video. Beverly Willson and Dan McCarthy were recognized for their hard work and dedication as the 2009 Campaign Chairperson and Board Chairman respectively.

Volunteer awards were also presented in four categories. The categories as well as their recipients were as follows: Community Service Award, winner Carleen Flowers; Group Award, winner Mission: Change; Summer Youth Award, winner Jazzmine Mike; and Harry Goldstein Lifetime Volunteer Award winner Freddie Coleman.  The meeting concluded as the new 2010 Board Chairman, Lorenzo Keaton, was sworn in to office.